The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The Internet utilizes the TCP/IP suite of protocols, which are well known in the art of computer networking. TCP/IP is an acronym for “Transport Control Protocol/Interface Program,” a software protocol developed by the Department of Defense for communication between computers.
The interconnected computers exchange information using various services, such as electronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). The WWW service allows a server computer systems (i.e., web server or web site) to send graphical web pages of information to a remote client computer system. The remote client computer system can then display the web pages. Each resource, (e.g., computer or web page) of the WWW is uniquely identifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). To view a specific web page, a client computer system specifies the URL for that web page in a request (e.g., a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request). The request is forwarded to the web server that supports that web page. When that web server receives the request, it sends that web page to the client computer system. When the client computer system receives that web page, it typically displays the web page using a browser. A browser is a special-purpose application program that effects the requesting and displaying of web pages.
Currently, web pages are typically defined using HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define how a web page is to be displayed. When a user indicates to the browser to display a web page, the browser sends a request to the server computer system to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document that defines the web page. When the requested HTML document is received by the client computer system, the browser displays the web page as defined by the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags that control the displaying of text, graphics, controls, and other features. The HTML document may contain URLs of other Web pages and web sites available on that server computer system or other server computer systems.
The World Wide Web has become especially useful for conducting electronic commerce. And it continues to increase its position as an integral place for businesses that offer information, services, and products to potential customers. Popular examples of such businesses are the following: news providers, such as www.cnn.com (Cable News Network), www.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal), and www.businessweek.com (Business Week Magazine); car manufacturers, such as www.ford.com/us (the Ford Motor Company) and www.gm.com (the General Motor Company); book stores, such as www.amazon.com (Amazon.com books) and www.bn.com (Barnes & Noble); and most importantly, Internet portal and search engine sites, such as www.yahoo.com, www.go.com, www.aol.com, and www.msn.com.
Potential customers are turning to the Internet in increasing numbers and particularly to the World Wide Web portion thereof, in order to find answers to questions, to search for products and services, and to gather information relating to any conceivable area of interest. The graphical portion of the World Wide Web is, in fact, comprised of over one hundred million web pages of content with over one million web pages being added every month. Each of those web pages contains information, products, and services that may be extremely valuable and useful to any given potential customer. The problem is that the vastness of the World Wide Web and the enormous amount of information contained within its growing boundary make it very difficult to find targeted information.
Search engines, such as those found at yahoo.com or lycos.com, have been created to help people find relevant information on a topic of interest. A person may type in a subject or key work and generate a list of web sites. A problem, however, with these type of Internet search engines is that it is difficult for them to deal with the vast amount of potential data that may be searched and retrieved. By entering certain keywords into such search engines, unwanted data, in addition to the desired data, may be discovered by the search engine, forcing the user to wade through often useless and unwanted search results in order to get to the desired data. This problem is only getting worse as the amount of data available continues to grow.
Another problem evident on the Internet is that current portals either provide too much information, so that it is difficult and time-consuming for users to obtain what they want, or they provide vertical information targeted to a specific topic and therefore useless with respect to any other subjects of interest. For example, a user can access a large portal, such as www.yahoo.com in order to access information ranging from stock quotes to cars to hotels and airlines. And yahoo.com can be used to find information on a given topic of interest or hobby as well. But the problem with Internet portals, such as yahoo.com, is that they are not targeted to particular lifestyles and, therefore, a search relating to a particular hobby or interest may take some time and perhaps some searching savvy in many cases. On the other hand, a person that is interested in sports, for example, can go to a vertical web site, such as www.espn.com, where he or she will be able to obtain information on all kinds of sports. Information relating to any other area of personal interest, however, cannot be found through that portal.
Currently, there is no avenue for users that have particular lifestyles to obtain useful information online relating to all of the different needs of their lives in a quick, easy, and centralized fashion. Thus, a need exists for Internet portals that are horizontally built around a particular lifestyle and that provide relevant and targeted information relating to all facets of life for people with that lifestyle.